Loris Vergier won the gold medal for France in the junior men's downhill race at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Hafjell, Norway on Sunday morning. Laurie Greenland (Great Britain) celebrated a silver medal while Jacob Dickson (Ireland) took home the bronze medal.

"I can't really believe it yet," said the new world champion Vergier, "but it was a good day for me."

Carlos Alfaro Peralta (Peru), the 16th man down the mountain, had time to get quite toasty in the hot seat after he clocked a 3:40.322.

"It was my best run today. I felt good after I had problems in the timed run," said Alfaro Peralta. Today the track was fast and dry."

Several riders commented that the track was so fast that it was scary to race.

It wasn't until New Zealand's Connor Hamilton came down as the 47th rider of the day that anyone was faster. Hamilton finished the 2.2km course in 3:38.736.

Australia's Max Warshawsky was the next man in the hot seat with a 3:37.721, but he wasn't fast enough for a medal.

"I'm pretty exhausted, but my run was good. It was pretty loose, but I got down in the end," said Warshawsky.

However, Dickson was quick enough to medal, thanks to a time of 3:36.384, which was within 7.294 seconds of Vergier. After his run, the Irishman took over the hot seat.

"I can't believe it. I had a few mistakes, but it's just the nature of the track, and I'm so happy to be in the top three," said Dickson.

Just three riders later, Greenland bumped him out of it with a 3:34.080, a time that would net him the silver medal.

"I had a good run. I slid out in the open turns, but pushed as hard as I could," said Greenland.

Pre-race favorite Luca Shaw (United States) crashed during his run, knocking himself out of medal contention. Other favorites, including Martin Maes (Belgium) and Taylor Vernon (Great Britain) had problems during their runs.

Vergier, the World Cup champion and top favorite for the day, was the last man down the mountain. His graceful, fluid run netted him the gold medal with a time of 3:29.100. He was the only man to go sub-3:30.

"The top of the course is so hard and I made some mistakes. It's so fast and so easy to crash, but it was a good day for me," said Vergier. After the top part, I applied some gas in the lower parts."